2 S'pore firms make it to Deloitte's Asia-Pac tech list

Singapore

TWO Singapore tech companies - social analytics startup ThoughtBuzz and industrial equipment firm Feinmetall - have emerged winners at Deloitte's 2014 Technology Fast 500 awards, which recognises the 500 fastest-growing tech companies in the Asia-Pacific from 2011 to 2013.

ThoughtBuzz, ranked 138th with a revenue growth rate of 323 per cent over the three years, is Singapore's top performer. The startup, founded in 2009 and acquired four years later for an undisclosed sum by India's digital services firm TO THE NEW, said that the award came as a surprise, and it first heard of it through a client only on Thursday.

"Any award means a lot as it recognises the hard work put in by the team," ThoughtBuzz chief executive officer Anshul Jain told The Business Times. "Coming from Deloitte, it meant all the more as it's a respected name . . . and if you look at the companies in the list, there are some very good names in there."

On future prospects for the social media and digital marketing sector, Mr Jain said: "There is a great need for people in Asia, especially those who are digitally trained and understand how digital or social media marketing works for the current generation. The potential is there . . . companies just need to know how to use it for themselves."

Feinmetall, which made the list at No 441, recorded a growth rate of 76 per cent over the three years. The private company began as a manufacturer of high-tech watch springs in 1964, and today has close to 410 employees across Asia, Europe and the US.

According to its website, it brought in about 40 million euros (S$65 million) in revenue for 2013, up from about 29 million euros for 2010.

When contacted, a spokesman said that the company had submitted a nomination for the award, but did not respond to further queries.

Notably, despite ThoughtBuzz's and Feinmetall's wins, their growth figures stood below the top 500 companies' average growth rate of 405 per cent in the 2014 report.

Their figures too, are significantly lower than the 902 per cent, 870 per cent, and 332 per cent achieved by the three Singapore winners last year, namely e-payments startup MatchMove Global, social media intelligence firm JamiQ, and credit card payment processor 2C2P.

The number of Singapore entries this year - two - is also the lowest since 2008. The Republic had 13 winners in 2011 and 10 in 2010.

But a Deloitte spokeswoman said that the ranking is not entirely indicative of Singapore's landscape due to explicable fluctuations. "The number of Singapore companies that make the list varies every year . . . depending on the quantity and quality of applications from Singapore and also of submissions from the other countries. In some years, we have had significant interest from companies in a particular country, but in some years they may choose not to submit their applications for whatever reasons."

One reason, she added, could be that companies are not obligated to reveal their financial statements in their local environment, but such information is in fact part of Deloitte's Technology Fast 500 submission criteria.

Daum Kakao Corp, the Seoul-based company behind popular messaging app KakaoTalk, took the top spot in Deloitte's list this year, with a staggering 11,618 per cent growth rate. The next two spots went to Chinese tech companies: green technology firm Telison (9,793 per cent growth rate) and semiconductor firm BOE Technology Group (9,710 per cent).

The firms on Deloitte's list are all headquartered in Asia, and have been in business for at least three years with a minimum operating revenue of US$50,000 in the first year of the three years analysed.